State v. Miller

• Decision Date: 07 March 1929
• Docket Number: 21342.
• Citation: 275 P. 75,151 Wash. 114
• Parties: STATE v. MILLER.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

275 P. 75

151 Wash. 114

STATE v. MILLER.

No. 21342.

Supreme Court of Washington

March 7, 1929

Department 2.

Appeal from Superior Court, Spokane County; Wm. A. Huneke, Judge.

Jacob J. Miller was convicted of being a bootlegger, and he appeals.Affirmed.

Robertson Paine & Schaaf, of Spokane, for appellant.

Chas W. Greenough and Frank Funk-houser, both of Spokane, for the State.

MAIN J.

The defendant was charged by information with the crime of being a bootlegger.After the information was filed, he made a motion to suppress certain evidence.This motion was denied.Upon the trial the liquor which it was sought to suppress was introduced in evidence.The trial resulted in a verdict of guilty as charged.From the judgment entered upon the verdict, the defendant appeals.

The first question is whether the evidence should have been suppressed.This depends upon the whether the arresting officers, at the time of making the arrest, had reasonable ground to believe that the appellant was engaged in bootlegging.A police officer of the city of Spokane and one of the arresting officers testified as follows with reference to what prompted the arrest and the manner thereof:

'Well the first time--I don't remember the exact date--the first time I saw the defendant some time along the fore part of November, he was driving a Chandler car that I had noticed before, and on the morning of the 17th of November the defendant--Officer McClelland and I were standing on the corner of Washington and Main Avenue and we see the defendant driving the car--the same Chandler touring car right by us.I called Officer McClelland's attention to the car and told him I believed--* * *

'I called his attention to the car, and the car turned and stopped in front of the Central Hotel.The defendant reached back and opened the rear door of the car, and the man in the doorway walked out to the car, walking very fast, and reached in and got a sack, and from where we were standing the things that were in the sack looked like gallon jugs or were that shape, and we were reasonably sure, anyway, that they were jugs. * * *

'The man picked it up on his right arm and went back into the hotel entrance and looked both ways, and defendant closed the car door and pulled out very fast toward Bernard Street and turned south on Bernard.That was about twenty-five minutes to eight on the 17th, or near that time.The next time I see him was about the same time the following morning, and Officer Manning and I were standing on the same corner of Washington and Main, and the defendant came up the street, and I called Officer Manning's attention to the car and told him what had transpired the morning before, and we watched the car, and he pulled up to the same Central Hotel entrance, and a man standing in the doorway ran out, and the defendant opened the back door, and he reached in and got another sack and the outfit were the same, or the same as near as we could tell to the ones that were taken out the morning before.A few minutes later the prowl car came around and we watched the car and it went on up east on Main and turned south on Bernard again, and we watched the car till it turned there, and about that time the prowl car containing Officer Wagner as driver and McClelland in the front seat came along and we stopped them and got in with them and drove around for about fifteen minutes before we located the car again, and we were going north on Brown near Riverside when we met this man driving the same Chandler touring car, and we turned around in the intersection of Riverside and Brown and swung right in behind him, and he turned west on Sprague Avenue and slowed up in front of the Nelson Hotel, and Officer Wagner drove the prowl car up alongside of his car, and we could see the suitcases where the back seat should be; the cushion was out of the car and the suitcases were lying right on the floor.He slowed down in front of the Nelson Hotel and there was a man standing pretty well back in the doorway, and the defendant evidently did not see him as he pulled up there, * * * because there was a car parked directly in front of this hotel entrance, and he pulled up past the car, and the defendant was looking up to his right and we were coming up on his left, and he apparently didn't see us at all, but the man in the doorway came up about halfway out to the street from the doorway and seen the prowl car, and he turned around and went right back to the hotel.*

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